When I turn 48, I say "This is all nonsense!"

I can no longer claim to be 'in my MID 40s'.  At the age of 47 that is still allowed by common rounding practices.  As of today, if I want to apply rounding honestly, I am 'in my LATE 40s'.
One thing that takes a bit of bitterness out of the above:  This blog hopefully testifies to that I used the last 10 months reasonably well ;-)

This is probably also a suitable spot to 'hide' an update on 'butting out'.
On Saturday, Nov. 23rd, the second day of being an owner of a ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery system), I wake up without any cigarettes in my room.  Now usually this would have been a reason to shower very quickly and to run to the gas station to buy more smokes (or go unwashed in cases of more overwhelming nic-fit ;-).

Which one is the Stinker?

Yes, I did go to the gas station to buy smokes ;-(  3 hours after waking up ;-).  And only because my brain kept telling me that somehow I was missing something.  So I finally gave in to Brain and got some 'real' cigarettes.  And I failed the Nicotine Taste Test !  What I had been missing wasn't the taste or the nicotine.  It was the facial expression during inhaling that I have perfected in 30 years as a smoker.  It was also the 'worldly' way of holding the cigarette between two fingers, perfected during the same time.  The taste or nicotine experience of a real cigarette wasn't really any better.  Yes, I was surprised too!  But even DURING the first cigarette, I was very aware that all of a sudden the air in my room became STINKY !

Who are we really feeling sorry for? Ourselves, for having to live in Jobs-less world?  SAD !

Now, to all you readers who read this far:  Was this interesting, or are you bored stiff? Did you think this was an efficient use of 'paper' and time spent or did the whole experience leave you with a bad taste in your mouth? Are the musings of an overfed 1st world expat in the midst of a midlife crisis on whether to smoke real cigarettes or fake ones really important?

1.5 million children die of hunger every year. Assuming it took you 3 minutes to read this post up to here,  9 CHILDREN somewhere in the world starved to death in the same time period.















So, get out your credit card and click on the following link:  CANADIAN RED CROSS (If you have a better choice, do your thing there).
(Note: If you don't want them to trade your name and address, just pay by PayPal and give them a phony name and address. It works ;-)

Imagine if these self-pitying donors had put this money in the right spot !